Gangs of 'hassipur': In conversation with MEC's T Gangadhar

The motivation behind T Gangadhar’s social media persona and how it impacts him and his friends from the industryShephali Bhatt | ETBrandEquity | Updated: January 11, 2017, 08:37 IST

Just like ‘Har Ghar Kuch Kehta hai’, every social media timeline says a lot about its account holder. It helps us label-lovers categorize people in different brackets such as: exhibitionists, activists, lurkers, archivers, cynics, (pun)ters, sorted, assorted, all of the above, or none of the above (for those who create accounts and never log in). When 60% of your friend list is people from work or the same industry, your social media persona also becomes a window for them to discover the other side of you. But that need not be your motivation to fill the cloud with your posts, tweets, vine (sorry, RIP), snaps, or Instagram stories. Take media man T Gangadhar (Gangs), MD of MEC South Asia, for instance. “I am constantly scavenging for interesting stuff. A lot of it is funny. Some has an insight into life, other has inadvertent humour. Some of it is deeply moving stuff shown in a unique manner. I share only what really appeals to me. A lot of what I see (largely on Reddit) doesn’t even go through the sieve,” he tells us.

Sample this: A picture of a news anchor on a South Indian news channel sporting a T-shirt that has the phrase “Shut the f*ck up” painted on it; or a meme with a picture of Christian Bale having tanned lines around his mouth, explaining why Batman only fought at night and not during daytime. His Facebook Photo Album is rife with such captures. (See: Curated For Laughs) ‘Scavenge’ seems to be the keyword in his picture-curating process. “There’s a lot of humour in daily life that goes beyond misspelled words on signboards. We just don’t take a pause that often to notice it amidst our hectic lives,” he feels. Gangs visits reddit.com at least 20 times in a day to look for funny subreddits. “It’s a release for me. That’s the time of the day when I’m not in work mode anymore. I can just forget about media, advertising, and marketing.”

It is not the guarantee of good ‘engagement numbers’ that makes it such a good release mechanism, just to be clear. “There’s a lot of stress in the world. You don’t want to add to it. If you’re really worked up all the time, sometimes you fail to see the humour in things. I’m glad I can still appreciate the humour in the little slices of life.”

Often, when you get into the habit of seeking comedy in little things, comedy starts seeking you itself. “Once, on a flight, a lady sitting next to me asked if I could exchange seats with her husband. I agreed and went where the husband was seated. He refused to switch seats. I had to come back. She was so embarrassed initially but it all turned out to be so funny. There are so many things like this that make you chuckle and laugh out loud at times.”

​Gangs’ knack of spotting the funny in things has become popular with the fraternity now. Kedar Teny, director of marketing and digital for McDonald’s India, loves the way he curates and shares posts on Facebook. His wife Priya Balan has even told him she actually goes through his profile to see if she has missed any funny shares. One often observes other industry folk sharing something comic and tagging him thinking it’s his kind of humour. He has indeed created a small ‘Gangs of Hassipur’ on the cloud. Here’s to extracting more ‘Haha’s out of otherwise red-hot emoji sporting people.